Dozens injured as car ploughs into New Orleans parade crowd

New Orleans emergency personnel attend to injured parade watchers (AP)

A young child was among at least 28 people who were injured when a vehicle ploughed into a crowd watching a parade in New Orleans.

Police Chief Michael Harrison said the male driver was being investigated for driving while intoxicated.

He did not rule out terrorism but said the early signs appeared to rule it out.

The accident at the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, came during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders.

Emergency Services Director, Dr Jeff Elder said 21 people were taken to hopsital, with five victims in guarded condition. Another seven declined to be hospitalised.

The victims range in age from as young as three or four-years-old to adults in their 30s and 40s, said Dr Elder.

Among the injured was one New Orleans police officer. Harrison said the officer, who was on duty, was undergoing tests to determine the extent of her injuries. She was in "good spirits," he said.

As police and city officials assessed the accident scene, people streamed home as plastic bags that used to hold trinkets and discarded beads littered the ground.

One woman at the scene told The New Orleans Advocate that a silver truck whisked by her just feet away as she was walking through the intersection.

Carrie Kinsella said, "I felt a rush it was so fast."

Twenty-year-old Kourtney McKinnis told the Advocate that the driver of the truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.

"He was just kind of out of it," she said.